Bonded through tragedy united in hope: The Catholic Church & East Timor’s struggle for independence, a memoir, by Hilton Deakin with Jim and Therese D’Orsa (Melbourne: Garratt Publishing 2017). Reviewed by Rowan Ireland. Australian Catholic bishop, Hilton Deakin, now aged 84, has given us a remarkable memoir. It was produced over several years, with the […]

Race Mathews on the significance of Catholic & co-operative social reform movements. Reviewed by Bruce Duncan As one of Australia’s most eminent Labor figures and historians, Race Mathews has offered a fresh interpretation of the Australian labour movement over the last 125 years, examining the development and impact of Catholic social ideas and movements. Other historians have […]

Book review. Many books and articles catalogue the often turbulent history of housing activism across Australian cities. The Victorian cases are usually focused on the inner north of Melbourne. A recent example, Trendyville: the battle for Australian cities, documents the slum reclamation battles, the involvement of the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Oswald Barnett, and […]

Kevin Peoples. Sometimes, if we are to understand highly complex human tragedies like WWI, we begin by reducing them to the personal. And sometimes, because of our interest in a single person, we are driven to discover a bigger and more abstract context, one that helps us understand what happened, and why. So I start […]

Reviewed by Jamie Pearce If, like me, you are interested in what is happening to religious affiliation in the twenty-first century, then consider reading this novel. The author, Michele Houellebecq, has renounced his former atheism, and now describes himself as agnostic. He says that he is showing the disasters produced by the liberalisation of values, […]

Reviewed by Kevin Peoples. This politically-charged book reads like a great dramatic novel. The drama is fixed in a clash of values. On one side are the powerful free-market fundamentalists. They are the rich and powerful of the world, committed to wealth, consumerism, and materialism, the articulate voices for profit-driven growth. Their actions rape the […]

Bruce Duncan. This biography of the energetic, influential, and deeply divisive Catholic activist B A Santamaria has been eagerly awaited. Gerard Henderson joined Santamaria’s National Civic Council in the mid 1960s, and worked for Santamaria himself in 1970–71 before eventually breaking with the organisation in the mid 1970s. He offers a valuable insider’s view of a complex […]

Len Puglisi. Len Puglisi is an urban environmental writer. During the Mannix era, Len was in regular contact with Catholic Worker men, most notably Gerard Heffey, and saw at first hand the dismay – hurt, even – they felt at being kept pretty much at a distance from their Archbishop’s support. Before I sat down […]

Launched by Craig Lapsley, Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner, this research aims to support and learn from the local clergy and laity in the Murrindindi Shire who responded to those impacted by the trauma of Black Saturday on 9 February 2009. The fires caused Australia’s highest-ever loss of life from a natural disaster. They claimed 173 […]

Frank Fletcher MSC, Jesus and the Dreaming: Discovering an Australian Spirituality Through Aboriginal-Christian Dialogue (Strathfield: St Pauls Publications, 2013), 344 pp, edited by Fabian Byers. $24.95. Reviewed by John D’Arcy May As someone who regarded Frank Fletcher as a friend and mentor, I welcome this summa of his decades of engagement with the Koories of […]

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Mission

Social Policy Connections is an independent, ecumenical organisation, motivated and informed by Christian social thinking. Our purpose is to expand awareness of social justice issues in Australia and overseas, and to influence public policy for the benefit of all people, especially the most disadvantaged. SPC is not aligned with any political party.

To help bring the social involvements of the churches into contemporary policy debates and shape a more just society, Social Policy Connections is committed to inform, advocate and engage.

Inform

Provide new platforms for informed debate and conversation through the web, conferences, public events and publications

Convene open forums for fresh voices, especially those with singular expertise or experience.

Advocate

Build relationships with politicians and opinion makers, the media, and like-minded organisations.

Publish research papers, opinion pieces and social comment.

Utilise the print media, along with radio and electronic media, including the internet.

Engage

Establish networks and alliances with concerned people, social agencies and organisations, churches and church agencies.